educational research -namz

CHAPTERONE

INTRODUCTION

Television is a piece of electronic device with a screen upon

which an individual can easily watch several different programmes

with moving pictures and sound. Television watching starts early

in a person’s life. Even very little children as early as one

year old in modern societies can be found in front of a

television set spending almost one and half hours a day watching

television programmes which they don’t even understanding.

Hetherington etal (1993:521) cited in Hollenbeck and Slaby

(1982:45) that children become consistence television watchers

when they reach the age of two and half to three years.(Ibid:521)

He continues to say still at the ages of two and half to three

years, children are not yet very serious constant television

watchers. He further points out that when a three years to five

years old children were carefully observed and monitored in

America while watching “sesame street” they looked away about two

hundred and fifteen times in an hour, when looked at the screen,

about seventy-five percent of their glances at the screen were

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very few, that is about six seconds.(Ibid:521) cited in Anderson

and Lewis (1976) He is saying that television watching patterns

are affected by programmes content and “formal features” of

television such as animation, high action, loud music visual and

auditory special effects. These formal features attract the

attention of children television.

Television watching time increases slowly until adolescence and

adulthood especially the retirees. However, in this report, the

researcher wish to bring out the negative effect of watching

television on part of the learners in relation to their learning

and academic excellencies in school particularly at Mwinilunga

Boarding Secondary.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The whole idea of this research is to expose the weakens of

watching television programmes on the learners in relation to

their academic excellencies at Mwinilunga Boarding Secondary

School only. This will aid the researcher to make appropriate

conclusions and recommendations to the parents and the nation at

large on how to best the television programmes can be altered,

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monitored and supervised in order to aid the children learn in

schools, homes and other higher learning educational institution

effectively and if quality education is to be sustained and

ensured that the children become well established in life and

become responsible future citizens that will build this nation

(Zambia) for the benefit of everyone.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

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1. To find out how much time children spend on a daily basis

watching television.

2. To find out whether the time spent by the children watching

television affect their learning.

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HYPOTHESIS

Television watching negatively affects learners’ academic

work in the classroom, for the much of their time is spend

on watching television without paying attention to their

academic work. If not supervised it can seriously affect the

academic performances of the school going child not only

those of Mwinilunga but at the national level.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of carrying this research is to see the negative

contribution of television programmes to learners that watch

them on their learnring and performance in schools

especially at Mwinilunga Boarding Secondary School, ever

since it was developed.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

As earlier pointed out in the introduction of this report

that television watching by many people especially the young

ones (infants and adolescents) begin very early in life.

This attitude of watching television deforms children in

many ways if not handled care and supervised by parents.

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One of the deformation that the researcher would like to

bring out and talk in detail is that which affects the

learning progression of pupils and eventually makes them to

have less academic knowledge such that children become unfit

to live in the society or rather makes them not to become

well established in the society.

Thornton (2008:553) has pointed out that are a lot of

interesting activities such as cartoon games and other

behaviors on television that easily attract the attention of

the children such that the children spend most of their time

watching them. He further points out that television is

usually used as the “baby sitters” through which parents

succeeds in doing domestic work at home. Most of the parents

go to an extent of even providing their children with

television set in their respective bedrooms such that

children are free to watch any kind of films or channels at

any time without controlling or rather supervising them on

best they can be watching television programmes or films in

order to spare some good time for the academic work and

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studying their school note books and do other necessary

school assignments.

Strang (1958:421) also says by citing Witly (1958:174) that

the time spent by children on the various programmes

available, they most interesting programmes of children

and youths are produced on television in a week is more than

any other single activity other than sleep. Strang

(1958:421) continues saying that these modern media of wide

spread communication such as televisions can become harmful

devices for prevention of thought. That is, they can

condition children in the manner that they will hate

studying academic work extensively as well as reason in

other important issues intelligently. The researcher is of

the idea that television watching is not bad in all, but is

concerned about how it greatly affect children’s learning in

schools and at home.

Among all the generation that have been in existence before,

our generation has been the first that has been ever

permitted the mind of children as far as preschool to be

commercialized. Children of this generation are also

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perculion in trying to study while watching television

programmes or other films. The study carried out by Mitchell

(1949:107) to find out the effects on children’s reading

understanding while studying showed that those children that

studied while watching television consistently especially

those with I.Q below 100 were affected by various programmes

than those that studied without watching television.

Mayer (1962:100) also postulates without hesitating that

television watching consumes large amount of free time for

children of all ages. Since most of the schools going

children are television watchers, very few during free time

found roaming the streets but the rest go to watching

television programmes or films either in their own houses or

elsewhere in TV clubs or cinema, although some still move in

groups going to look for something else exciting other than

watching television that will attract their attention. They

even go to the extent of penetrating through the city

shopping centres after closing hours and on weekend morning

especially Saturdays which are powerful attraction places

especially for the urban children just go to and search for

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television clubs or simply go to the already known

television clubs to watch films instead of going through

their academic work and do other school assignments.

Mayer (1962:101) says there are television clubs attached to

the schools which are very informal and are established by

the scholars themselves those with available setting date

with each other to be watching certain programmes in one

another’s houses. However, these very clubs are ones that

attracts school huge amount of time in them watching the

very programmes with which they set dates with one another

to be watching.

This habit of watching television indeed affects school

going children of which they spend many hours watching the

television programmes as a result children tend to go to bed

very late and turn up at school with dark ring around their

eyes and other signs of tiredness. This tiredness makes

children fail to concentrate when the teacher is teaching in

class, but they resort to dozing in class and understand

nothing at all at the end of the lesson. Thus the possession

of television sets in homes often reduces the reading

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opportunity and increases the general “booklessness” of

homes.

Hetherington etal (1993:520) also commented that television

is possibly an earlier and more pervasive device that

negatively affects children cognitive development. He says,

by the time children reaches the age of sixteen, it means

they would have spent more time watching television

programmes than attending school. This still implies that

children do little of reaching school academic books, which

leads to poor performances of children in public

examinations in grade nine and twelve, also probably at

college and university levels, since children grow up with

this mentality of watching television programmes than

concentrating on their academic work.

Furthermore, Hetherington etal (1993:522) in an

investigation he carried out on television and children’s

time use, showed that television watching consumes much of

the time resulting in displacing other activities, such as

sports , reading or evening talks as family. However to find

out whether television displaces other activities is not

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very easy because almost 99% of house hold posses television

set. Thus a study concluded in Canada provided a solution by

comparing towns without television reception and those with

one or four channels, cited in (Williams and Handford 1986).

The results were very clear and they showed that involvement

in community activities is greatest in towns without

television and least in the town with one or four television

channels. After television was available, children reduced

attendance at dances, supper parties and even s[orts. Other

studies verified these findings and indeed deduced that

heavy television consumers spend less time with friends, get

to sleep and were less likely to play music instrument.

I agree with Hetherington’s findings that really television

watching consumes more time just like other authors have

found out in their researches and displaces other pursuits

especially such as spend less time with friends and get less

sleep, pending time. Spending time with friends is very

important especially to the side of pupils in schools or

even at home because through interaction their education is

enriched, but it is very unfortunately that the majority of

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children spend much of their free time watching films and

other programmes in television clubs. As for getting less

sleep this was already alluded to by Mayer that usually turn

up at school very late with signs of tiredness in their eyes

leading them to dozing in class and getting completely

nothing at the end of the lesson.

Havighurst etal (1975:130) also says no matter how much or

how little the educational system makes use of television

and electronics media to do its good to children and the

nation at large the media will negatively keep an affecting

the minds of children independently. Havighurst reports by

citing Schramm, Lyle and Parker (1980) the findings they

found in the study sample of children and families in Canada

and United States that the average children between the age

of three and sixteen spent one sixth of their working hours

watching television. This means an average child spends as

much time as possible looking at a television as they do in

school during the vocation periods. Therefore, it is seen

that actually television watching consumes huge amount of

time causing other activities to suffer such as studying and

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doing other school assignments as in the case of pupils and

in elders it prevents them from doing other important

activities necessary for everyday life.

CHAPTER THREE

STUDY SAMPLE

The research under review was carried out at Mwinilunga

Boarding Secondary School. Forty pupils were chosen from

four different grades, that is grade nine, ten, eleven and

twelve. Ten pupils were chosen from each grade. Of the forty

pupils, twenty were girls and the other twenty were the

boys. Ten girls and ten boys were television watchers while

the other ten girls and ten boys were non television

watchers. All of the forty pupils were average in academic

and non repeaters. All the non television watchers confessed

that watching television was not their hobby. In addition,

they were not active in any other extra- curricular

activities such as soccer and so on, but concentrated on

studying and sometimes sleeping when they were exhausted of

studying though once in a while they refreshed their minds

by watching soccer. On the other hand all the television

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watchers or viewers confessed that watching television was

their favorite hobby as compared to any other extra-

curricular activities or entertainment. Data collected are

shown and analyzed

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Questionnaires were used in the collection of data. Besides

the questionnaires the information was collected by oral

interviews. The primary materials such as text books were

used to gather the information in this research.

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LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

It was not very easy to collect data. Some respondents from

teachers and pupils showed no interest at all in giving out

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information as instructed on the questionnaires. But through

pleading and encouraging them they finally gave out the

required information which led to successful completion of

this research work.

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CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION OF DATA COLLECTED

PUPILS’ PERFORMANCE IN THE ASSESSMENT

Table 1 below shows the scores in percentages obtained by

five grade nine pupils that are serious television watcher

or viewer in formative assessment (end of month tests and

assignments) and summative assessment (end of term 1 tests)

in compulsory subjects (Mathematics, English, Environmental

Science, Civics, History and Geography) on average. The

first three pupils were girls and the last two are boys.

No of

pupils

SUBJECTS/ MAARKS (%)Mathemati

cs

Englis

h

Env.Sci

e

Civics Histor

y

Geograph

y1 51 59 56 63 58 542 53 57 54 64 61 623 58 56 58 57 52 614 61 58 59 69 63 545 57 52 67 65 54 63

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ẋ∑

=

56 56 57 64 58 59

Table 2 below shows the scores in percentages obtained by five

grade nine pupils that are not television watcher or viewer in

formative assessment (end of month tests and assignments) and

summative assessment (end of term 1 tests) in compulsory subjects

(Mathematics, English, Environmental Science, Civics, History and

Geography) on average.

The first two pupils were girls and the last three are boys.

No of

pupils

SUBJECTS/ MARKS (%)Maths English Env.Sci

e

Civics History Geograph

y1 63 73 68 80 72 642 68 76 67 83 75 693 77 72 74 81 76 674 78 69 79 77 78 725 82 71 88 77 74 69

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ẋ∑ = 74 72 74 80 75 68


grade ten pupils that are serious television watcher or viewer in



(Mathematics, English, Science, Civic Education, and Geography)

on average.

The first three pupils were girls and the last two are boys.

No of

pupils

SUBJECTS/ (%)Mathemati

cs

Englis

h

Science Civic

Education

Geograph

y1 52 64 53 58 512 58 57 55 59 623 56 61 54 62 574 57 55 59 64 545 63 53 61 64 59ẋ ∑ = 57 58 56 61 57


grade ten pupils that are not television watcher or viewer in

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on average.


No of

pupils


cs

Englis

h

Science Civic

Education

Geograph

y1 68 72 65 77 662 66 69 65 73 693 68 68 70 72 674 78 68 83 84 715 80 74 71 70 68∑ = 72 70 71 75 68

Table 5 below shows the scores in percentages obtained by

five grade eleven pupils that are serious television watcher



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in compulsory subjects (Mathematics, English, Science, Civic

Education, and Geography) on average.


No of

pupils


cs

Englis

h

Science Civic

Education

Geograph

y1 55 63 57 63 512 52 65 58 62 593 54 56 57 66 544 56 55 63 60 545 61 52 64 65 62ẋ ∑ = 56 58 60 63 56


grade eleven pupils that are not television watcher or viewer in




on average.

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No of

pupils

SUBJECTS/(%)Mathemati

cs

Englis

h

Science Civic

Education

Geograph

y1 67 73 66 70 662 69 79 62 71 693 69 68 74 74 674 73 67 73 71 725 78 69 79 73 75ẋ∑ = 71 69 71 72 70 Table 7 below shows the scores in percentages obtained by

five grade twelve pupils that are serious television watcher



in compulsory subjects (Mathematics, English, Science, Civic

Education, and Geography) on average.


No of

pupils

SUBJECTS/ MARKS (%)Mathemati

cs

Englis

h

Science Civic

Education

Geograph

y1 50 56 53 67 592 53 58 58 62 61

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3 52 57 64 65 544 53 51 66 63 565 54 54 57 66 63ẋ∑ = 52 55 60 65 59


grade twelve pupils that are not television watcher or viewer in




on average.


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No of

pupils

SUBJECTS/ MARKS (%)Mathemati

cs

Englis

h

Science Civic

Education

Geograph

y1 70 71 66 77 632 69 73 65 74 683 78 67 81 72 754 73 68 69 73 745 76 72 70 70 80ẋ∑ = 73 70 70 73 72

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DATA ANALYSIS OR INTER PREPATION

Looking at the result of pupils in formative and summative

assessment of both television watchers or viewers and non

television watchers, there is no doubt that television watching

negatively affects children’s academic Excellencies.

Comparing tables 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8 for the

grades sampled, there is a total marked difference in terms of

scores obtained by pupils in percentages in each category, for

grade nine in mathematics, English, environmental science,

civics, history and geography, then for grade ten, eleven and

twelve in mathematics, English, science, civic education and

geography. All the average television watchers sampled could not

perform better than non television average watchers or viewers.

It can be clearly seen from the results of the television

watchers that if the time they spent on watching television

programmes and other films was serious used for study their

education work either privately are open discussion with other

school peer, their results without doubt, would have been

probably the same or better that those of non television

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watchers. The mean percentage mark for grade nine who are serious

television programmes watchers as compared to the mean percentage

mark for the grade nine non television watchers yields 56 in

mathematics, 56 in English, 59 in environmental science, 64 in

civics, 58 in history, 59 in geography and 74 in mathematics, 72

in English, 74 in environmental science, 80 in civics, 75 in

history, 68 in geography respectively. Therefore the difference

in percentage between the television watchers and non television

watchers in each category of the subject is 18 in mathematics, 16

in English, 15 in environmental science, 16 in civics, 17 in

history, and 9 in geography.

The mean percentage mark for grade ten who are serious


mark for the grade ten non television watchers yields 57 in

mathematics, 58 in English, 56 in science, 61 in civic education,

57 in geography for the television watchers, whereas the mean

percentage mark of non television watcher are 72 in mathematics,

70 in English, 71 science, 75 in civic education, 68 in

geography. Therefore the difference in percentage between the

television watchers and non television watchers in each categoryPage | 28

of the subject is 15 in mathematics, 12 in English, 15 in

science, 14 in civic education, and 11 in geography.

The mean percentage mark for grade eleven who are serious


mark for the grade eleven non television watchers yields 56 in






television watchers and non television watchers in each category



The mean percentage mark for grade twelve who are serious


mark for the grade twelve non television watchers yields 52 in




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television watchers and non television watchers in each category



The multiple bar charts below summarizes the comparisons of the

mean percentage marks between the performance of television

programmes watchers and non television programmes watchers and

non television programmes watchers in percentages compulsory

subjects stated above for every grade level sampled.

Grade 9

Maths Eng Env.Scie Civics History Geog0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

WatchersNon-watchers

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Grade 10

Maths Eng Scie Civic Edu.

Geo0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Television watchersNon television wathers

Grade 11

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Maths Eng Scie Civic Edu

Geog0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Television watchersNon television wathchers

Grade 12

01020304050607080

Television watchersNon television watchers

The table 9 below shows the responses from each teacher

interviewed through the questionnaires in which some are in ofPage | 32

the idea supporting that television watching by school going

children really negatively affects their performance in their

academic work, while others objected that the television watching

does not affect the performance of children but gives them more

knowledge.

Number of teacher Television watchingby school going1hildren affectstheir academicperformance

Television watchingby school goingchildren does notaffect their academicperformance

1√

2 √3 √4 √5 √6 √7 X8 √9 √10 √11 √12 √13 X14 √15 √16 √17 √18 √19 X20 √

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21 √22 √23 √24 √25 √26 √27 √28 X29 √30 √

The mean percentage and difference in percentage mark between

children whole watch television programmes or

films and children who do not watch television programmes or

films generally shows that children who spend much of their time

watching television programmes and other interesting films of

their choices are as far behind in terms of performance in

academic work as compared to their peers that are non-television

programmes, watchers but concentrate on much of their time

studying their school books, do group discussion in school work

and other school academic assignment. As touching the response

collected from teachers as indicated in table 9, it clearly shows

that 87% of teachers commented on that excessive television

watching by the school going children detrimental to their

academic excellence, whereas 13% of teachers were against the

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idea that excessive television watching by school going children

does not really prevent children’s cognitive thought in any way

but gives them more knowledge. However by the majority, it would

be observed that truly excessive television watching by school

going children negatively affect their academic performance and

prevents cognitive thought in children.

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CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

It can be seen from the fore going discussion that the large

amount of free time spent by the children watching television

programmes and other films in school, homes and other television

programmes negatively affect their academic excellence. There is

no doubt that television will in all places keep on to be the

major pastime of children. Children do not most cases use their

free time meeting with their school mates discussing and solving

educational matters such as home works and assignments or

studying in their own bedrooms, but seriously uses their free

time watching television programmes other films in their living

rooms and sometimes in their own bedrooms or television clubs,

and parents just watch thinking it is urbanization and standard

of life required while at the same time regarding those homes

without television sets to be poor. We have seen that by

excessive television programmes watching by children in homes,

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schools and other television clubs makes children go to bed very

late which in turn makes them to report to school very late too

and sometimes tired and also such children instead of

concentrating to what the teacher execute in class they resort

and get nothing at all by the end of the lesson. Television

generally can become a detrimental instrumental for prevention of

thought. It can deform people especially children to passivity in

the face of greet needs and issues. It can destroy the leisure,

peace and freedom from destruction out of which the exceptional

mind is born.

RECOMMENDATION

It has been seen and still is very clear that parents do not

control and advice their children on best way of watching

television programmes and especially other films. Parents do not

choose television programmes which are beneficial to their

children that can even develop their intellectual mind-cardinal

for them to excel in academic pursuits. But parents allow their

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children watching television programmes and other films anywhere

at any time. They even go an extent of providing their children

with television sets in their bedrooms with recorders such that

children can easily access any channel thy wish to watch at any

time, especially for those homes with the satellite dishes, and

are well to do. It is not wrong to do so, however, danger is even

seen of which large amount of time is spent on television

especially by the school going children neglecting the school

work not even going through it.

The researcher is therefore pleading with the parents that they

should actively be the managers of their children’s television

watching every time they are not at home and also putting serious

measures that children do not spend much of their time watching

television programmes and other films when they are away from

home for work and other business, but provide them with adequate

school materials in their respective bedrooms as they do with

television sets for children to be studying and learning. If

possible, parents should stock one room within the house with

different school materials for their children. Parents should

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encourage their children to be reading extensively wide to aid

them adequate knowledge.

Parents should also ensure that most of the television programmes

that their children should be watching are educational ones. On

certain channels, there are serious educational programmes that

are shown such that if children watched them on several occasion

as they do on watching on non educational programmes, and if this

is to be done, teaching and learning in schools would not be a

problem at all. However, it is very unfortunately that the

majority of the pupils in secondary schools do not know even how

to spell obvious words correctly and to read or write the

sentences well, simply because they do not practice to read or

write most of the time but just spend much of their free time

watching television programmes.

To the media centers, I would sincerely recommend you for all the

programmes that you deliver to the nation at large for the

benefit of every citizen of this country (Zambia). However, bare

mind that the most of viewers of these programmes broadcasted are

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children which all of us would love to see excelling in education

and at one time became the responsible citizen of this country.

Parents and teachers can aid the children incorporate these

modern mean of communication especially by television broadcast

into a total well balanced pattern of competence. They should

know what the children are reading, seeing and listen to, and

discuss these programmes with them. Out of these discussions

should come the evaluations and the development of good

standards.

REFERENCE

Harighurst, R.J etal (1975) Society and Education 4th Edition,

Allyn and Bacon Inc., Boston

Hetherington, E.M etal (1993) Child Psychology; A Contemporary

View Point 4th Edition, Mc Graw Hill, New York.

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Mayer, J.B (1962) Education and the Urban Child; Social Research

Series, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool.

Mitchell, W.J (1966) Psychology, Addison-Wesley Publishing

Company, Michigan.

Strang, R (1950) An Introduction to Child Study, Macmillan, New

York.

Thornton, S (2008) Understanding Human Development, Palgrave

Macmillan, Hampshire.

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